Okay Geek Farm
Playstation.com and PSN experiencing downtime after Sony targeted by Anonymous
Ricardo Trejo
Anonymous has gotten upset that Sony is going after hackers who are messing with their “closed” system. In retaliation, the group has waged war against the corporate giant despite what GeoHot and others have done being considered illegal, and spoken of as illegal, within the terms of service regarding Sony’s PS3 console.
Earlier in the day, Anonymous, the hacker group which has had its roots tied to 4chan’s /b/ section, decided that they had become bored with their other “humanitarian” pursuits and set their sights on Sony and the Playstation platform. Here’s what they had to say:
“Hello Sony,
It has come to our unfortunate attention that you have decided to interupt the free flow of information. As you well know from other acts performed by Anonymous, that we will not stand for this. By sueing Geo Hot, and attempting to view the IP addresses of those who watched his videos, you have angered the hive.
You have abused and penalized your customers, for obtaining and sharing jailbreak software. This is the same thing as some one buying and legally owning a computer but being punished for installing or deleting programs. You saw the hive, and you stuck your penis in it. Now you will feel the wrath of anonymous. Your official websites will be taken offline, including the playstation store. These attacks will continue untill we are completely satisfied with the outcome.
We are anonymous
We are legion
We do not forgive greedy companies
We do not forget the denial of free flow of information
Expect us.”
Shortly thereafter, Sony’s official page and even PSN went down abruptly, no doubt the work of the hacktivist group behind the original threats. In reply, Sony said this via its AskPlaystation Twitter account:
“PSN currently undergoing sporadic maintenance. Access to the PSN may be interrupted throughout the day. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
Personally, I’ve always cheered on from the cheap seats for Anonymous and their causes. Heck, I was one of the main instigators when Cooper Lawrence was going after Mass Effect on Fox News by posting on /v/ the idea to spam her book’s Amazon page in favor of lolcats images. I’m no stranger to all of this business, however I’m just trying to figure out why Anonymous is jumping from a defensive stance to an offensive one. In times past, Anon would wait until something completely outrageous occured and unfair would happen to the little guy, that way his voice could be heard louder than any single voice ever could be. Now though, it feels as if some are just bored and want to play hero to a non-existent threat.
Why not rage cyber-terror on worse enemies to humanity than a company who is full within its rights to do whatever they please with their own product. Sure, there’s a double standard when mobile devices are allowed to be jailbroken and home video consoles aren’t, but that doesn’t mean that Geohot was in the right by releasing code for people to “open” their systems and potentionally play back-up games.
Maybe Anonymous should go after Pepsi for doing away with Crystal Pepsi next!
